Deck Nine Games
Deck Nine Games (previously Idol Minds) are the Denver, USA-based developers of Life is Strange: Before the Storm. Self-proclaimed fans of the original Life is Strange, they are currently focusing on narrative adventure games. Founded in 1997, they were focused on PlayStation games. History Deck Nine Games (formerly known as Idol Minds up until May 2017) is a small, independent game developer studio dedicated to the "forging of stories and gameplay into transformative entertainment experiences."Official Website They were founded in 1997 by , originally focused on PlayStation 1 games. The company's earliest hit is a snowboarding series called Cool Boarders. Over the years, Deck Nine (as Idol Minds) has worked with publishers such as and . For the past three years prior to the release of Before the Storm, Deck Nine has been focused on expanding their genre to narrative adventure games. Their efforts have been directed towards developing "StoryForge", a suite of tools for writers, directors, cinematic artists and content creators that allows them to create an interactive story and turn that story into a fully functioning narrative game. The writing tool PlayWrite integrates writing traditional screenplays and the branches and consequences found in narrative games. It allows writers to focus "on amazing characters, intriguing plots and agonizing choices" and spend more time on writing, reading and playing a story before it goes into production. Additional functionalities include scene graphs, motion capture, audio recording scripts and output to their custom cinematic tool. The cinematic tool StoryTeller is essential for creating film-like moments blending a mix of automation and easy to use controls to give artists creative command of features such as lip syncing, blending animations, emotion events, cameras and camera effects (depth of field, chromatic aberration etc.). On May 31, 2017, it was announced that long time PlayStation developer Idol Games had rebranded and would be known from this date as Deck Nine Games. On this same date, it was revealed that the studio has partnered with a major AAA publisher (which we now know to be ). The studio rebranded due to their shift to story-driven-narrative games following their development of the new toolset called StoryForge, which focuses on "meaningful storytelling and rich gameplay" and would function similar to the engine used by . StoryForge allows the integration of "motion capture, narrative choices, music and more". The development team consists of motion capture professionals and cinematic artists who will be working 'in house'.PlayStation Developer Idol Games Rebrands as Deck Nine Games, Partners with Major AAA Publisher (dualshockers.com) Before the Storm is the first narrative adventure game Deck Nine Games is working on, in collaboration with publisher Square Enix and the original Square Enix team that participated in the development of the the original Life is Strange including Game Designer Alejandro Arque. Webb Pickersgill, Before the Storm's Co-Game Director at Deck Nine Games has commented that: "I love working with the actors to bring the characters to life. My directing style requires my actors own their characters. I make sure they deeply understand who they are playing, and the details of the life they are living. We do workshops to explore the body language and refine the details that make what that character unique and interesting. Then, we explore each scene and often discover what blocking and body language works the best for each moment."Live Reddit AMA (August 10, 2017) TBC On February 8, 2019, Chris Floyd confirmed that the studio managed to hire some of the laid-off staff from Telltale Studios.Twitter post by Chris Floyd Future Plans Zak Garriss stated in an interview over the question if Deck Nine Games would consider doing a second season, "loved working in the Life is Strange universe and would consider any opportunity that felt right to return to Arcadia Bay, for sure.”Life Is Strange Before The Storm - Season 2 update from Deck Nine Games will delight fans (December 17, 2017) Chris Floyd stated in an interview over the question what's next for Deck Nine, "Well, we're really excited to make more cinematic adventure games. That's really what we're built for. Beyond that, I don't know that we can speak to the future at this point. We're just not ready to talk about it. We've still got episode three to finish and our farewell bonus episode to complete and release. So, we've got plenty on our plates right now."How 'Life is Strange' landed in Deck Nine's hands StoryForge Screenshots of the toolset:Deck Nine Games' website, technology sectionReddit post by /u/denetii Tech_PlayWrite.jpg|Script writing tool shown on Deck Nine Games' website. Tech_Storyteller_tool-2.jpg|Scene editing tool showing part of the picnicker scene. Tool1.jpg|Scene editor showing part of the junkyard scene. Tool2.jpg|Correction curves. Tool3.jpg|Dialog keyframes. Team * Mark Lyons (President / CTO) * Jeff Litchford (Vice President) * Andrew Weatherl (Art Director) * Chuck Carr (Audio Director) * David Hein (Producer) * Webb Pickersgill (Co-Game Director) * Chris Floyd (Co-Game Director) * Zak Garriss (Lead-Writer) * Ashly Burch (Writing Consultant) * Felice Kuan (Co-Writer) * Mallory Littleton (Co-Writer) * Jonathan Zimmerman (Co-Writer) * Ross McCall (Sr. Narrative Designer) * Christopher Means (Level and Narrative Designer) * Phil Bache (Voice-Over Director) During the development of Before the Storm, several people from Square Enix joined the development team at Deck Nine: * Alejandro Arque (Game Designer, Square Enix) * Toby Palm (Community Manager, Square Enix) * Scott Blows (Brand Manager, Square Enix) Trivia * From 1997 to May 2017, Deck Nine was known as Idol Minds. * Life Is Strange: Before the Storm is the Deck Nine's first narrative adventure. * The name "Deck Nine" comes from a storytelling game from the 80s. * The company became widely known for their physics engine in the 2007 game , which was the most downloaded game on PlayStation Network in 2009.Open Up For A Strong Dose Of PSN Stats (January 26, 2009) * A Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Deck Nine Games team took place on August 10, 2017.Announcement post Gallery Meet_Zack_Garriss.jpg Meet Webb Pickersgill.jpg Meet Chris Floyd.jpg Group-Photo-Deck-Nine-ColorBlock.jpg|Deck Nine, circa May 2017. Meet-D9-Collage-50.png|Deck Nine employees, circa at the end of 2017. Presence at E3 2017 Deck Nine Games at E3 2017.jpg|Deck Nine Games at the E3 2017. Presence at Gamescom 2017 DH5pexZXYAAyfo1.jpg DIATCd9XcAQ7cdu.jpg DH7G3omXgAAXsE5.jpg DH5gJoFXcAEOLSL.jpg Videos Return to Arcadia Bay Life Is Strange Before the Storm Gameplay Demo - IGN Live E3 2017 Before the Storm - E3 2017 Q&A Stream with Timestamps E3 Coliseum A Look at Life is Strange Before the Storm Chloe and Rachel ESRB Life is Strange Before The Storm Interview w Deck Nine Games' Zak Garriss & David Hein Chris Floyd, Director of Life Is Strange Before The Storm talks about Ep3 Idol Minds (Deck Nine Games) StoryForge toolset demonstration (2015) Interviews * Life is Strange Before the Storm Gameplay Demo - IGN Live E3 2017 * Before the Storm - E3 2017 Q&A * E3 Coliseum A Look at Life is Strange Before the Storm * Waypoint Article (August 3, 2017) * Game Informer Article (August 22, 2017) * Red Carpet Report Interview (December 14, 2017) External Links * Website * Wikipedia * Facebook * Twitter References pt-br:Deck Nine Games ru:Deck Nine Games Category:Developers Category:Before the Storm Category:Behind the Scenes Category:Behind the Scenes (Before the Storm) Category:Deck Nine Games Category:Farewell